Chapters:

I woke up before sun rise and sat in my cot in the dark,
sharpening my sword. Starfire had said that we were going to
leave once the sun was up, so soon she and Tamwyn woke as well.
Blaze walked in to the training center and made us coffee with
out question. I took a cup grate fully, and took a long, deep
draft from it, knowing I would need the caffeine.

Once we were up and fed, we finished sharpening our swords and
put on armor that was a mixture of bronze, copper, and steel. It
was ridiculously thick, but it was not heavy like you would
expect it to be. It did not get in the way either, which was
nice because I can't really run with heavy stuff on my body. It
felt like I was just wearing my usually cotton shirt and pants. I
knew that the Earth tribe did not have as advanced armor as we
did, so I was grateful for the advantage.

Soon, we were suited up and ready to go. We headed over to the
lake, where we found soldiers already in lines, ready for take
off at a moments notice. I took a deep, calming breath and
stepped ahead of the crowd.

"Is every one ready for this?" I called over the crowd. They
all nodded affirmatively. I took another deep breath. "Well
then." I said, more to myself than to any one else. "Here we
go."

We flew on for some time, and it was completely silent between
our huge crowd. I am not going to lie - I was scared. Scared and
worried. I mean, there was no way we could be out numbered - it
is three against one. But they have better weaponry, and we can
not afford to kill them all, so if they do not listen to us, then
we will have to return home and prepare for the next time they
attack. There will be no rest from this war if this battle turns
poorly. We can not afford to lose. I touched my sword hilt
lightly, feeling the smooth, cold stone. It gave me courage, some
how, though not in the way Starfire's sword had. But that was a
much more experienced sword.

We touched down in front of the gates to the Earth kingdom, on
the same land that we have fought them before. It was as silent
as each time we had been here, and I wondered if the Earth tribe
was actually going to show up.

Starfire took a huge breath and screamed out. "If you are not
cowards, Earth, then come and fight us. If you are true Children
of the Earth, then come defend what you have created. Do not be
cowards; come and fight us!"

And one by one, from between the trees, appeared Earth soldiers.
They kept building up and up, and soon I realized that they
practically matched us in numbers. My fear grew.

They stood opposite of us, just standing there silently. Then one
man stepped forward.

"You fools" he spat at us, but some of us laughed instead of
being afraid. He glowered. "We are no cowards, and if you
challenge us so, then we will kill you all. I will give you a
second chance, a chance to turn back and run home. You have five
seconds to turn around."

"We are not going any where" I said loudly, and I even surprised
my self in saying it. I cleared my throat. "We are staying right
here, where we will fight you. We will fight you, and win!" Those
on my side cheered and whooped and whistled appreciatively. The
Earth man laughed.

"It is your own death wish, my friends. You want to fight us? So
be it."

He retreated back in to his crowd. I did not know what was
supposed to happen next. My heart pounding insanely, I drew my
sword. I took a breath and screamed "FOR FIRE!"

We charged them, and I heard calls for Water and Air as we ran
towards the enemy. We met in the middle with a solid CLANG,
hitting head on with the Earth people. I slashed and jabbed,
blocked and parried, with Blaze on one side of me and Ember on
the other. We slowed slightly, hoping to let the archers in the
back on the hill get a clear view, but other fighters rushed
forward passing us, and some how we were lost in the middle. The
two groups melded completely together, and people were falling
every where I turned. My mind was focused on one thing, and that
was to take down as many Earth warriors as I could, and I tried
so hard not to see their pleading faces, or the blood soaking my
shirt as they fell. I tried so hard not to run away, not to cry,
but to battle on, knowing that this had to be done, and that it
was far too late to turn back. I refused to feel the pain of
swords grazing my shoulders, of arrows cutting open my calves, or
of shields being rammed in to my head. For one terrifying moment,
some one knocked my sword right out of hands and I fell to the
ground. I looked up in a daze to see a young looking girl with
bronze colored hair and hazel eyes looking down on me with blood
staining her cheeks and hate etched in every line of her face. I
did not want to, but I set fire to her feet, which distracted
her. I grabbed my sword off of the ground and ran straight back
in to the fray, refusing to hear her screams as she desperately
tried to put out the fire on her flesh. Every one was screaming,
and I looked for ward to see who my next victim was. That was
when I saw her fall.

A tall man lifted his sword high, and brought it down hard, right
in to Ember's shoulder. She screamed, and this time, for the
first time in the battle, I screamed too, and I watched her
collapse. The man left her for dead, but I knew that if I let
that happen then Blaze would die too, and would never be able to
for give him self for letting her out of his sight for even a
second. I knew that if I did not get to her in time, Blaze would
be destroyed, inside and out. I ran too her, just as Blaze got
there. He was crying, and screaming her name, and I slapped him
across the face to get his attention. He looked up at me,
startled, tears streaming down his face, clutching Ember to him.

"GO!" I screamed in his face. "GET HER OUT OF HERE! SAVE HER
BLAZE, SAVE HER DAMN IT!"

He nodded, tears streaming down his face. He hoisted her up off
of the ground and began to run with her. I grabbed the shield of
a fallen Earth warrior and ran with them, using the shield to
cover Ember from further harm, using my sword with my left hand
to fend off attackers while Luke used his right. Together, we
made an amazing team, and we ran off in to the forest where we
knew emergency healers stood by anxiously waiting for some thing
like this to happen. We ran as fast as we could and soon people
converged upon us. For one paranoid moment, I nearly be headed
one of them, afraid that they were not the healers but more Earth
warriors here to finish Ember off.

I was breaking through the enemy lines, taking down one man
after another, feeling nothing but cool and calm, not letting
my self hear their cries, or see the look on their faces; first
awe, that I was an existing creature, then fear, as I raised my
sword to strike them down, then pain and sorrow as they died. I
marched forward, sword flashing left and right, unfeeling,
unknowing, and not caring.

Luke placed Ember on a blanket and the healers went at her with
needles and herbs and some strange purple liquid. They poured
water over her face many times. Blaze punched a tree repeatedly,
while I stood there gasping for air like a fish out of water.
Please, Ember, don't die, don't die, don't die. You can not
leave Blaze, you can not leave Blaze, damn it! Please wake up,
please…

Just as Blaze's tree toppled over, I heard a splutter and a gasp
and saw Ember crying and screaming but very, very much alive.
Blaze nearly toppled one of the healers over to get to her, and
the second he got to her his pressed his lips to hers. It did not
occur to me to turn away and not watch them, so I did watched
them, breathing a sigh of relief. He pulled away from her, still
crying but smiling too.

The screams and battle cries were enough to make any one's
head spin. The noise was so deafening, even I could not block
it from my mind. I realized that Blaze, Ember, and Flame had
disappeared. I assured my self that they were fine, where ever
they were.

"Blaze…what…what is going on?" she asked, looking dazed and
confused. She had made no attempt to move but looked in to his
eyes deeply.

"You nearly died!" he cried, almost sounding angry with her for
getting a sword shoved in to her shoulder. "What made you think
you could leave me like that?! Damn it, Ember, I love you! You
can not do that to me ever again, damn it!"

She smiled weakly. "You love me?" she whispered.

His expression softened as he realized what he had let slip. "I -
yes. Yes, I love you, Ember. Ever since we were kids I have loved
you."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and then opened them
again.

"Blaze, may I ask you some thing?"

"Anything." He whispered.

"Did you seriously not notice that I have always loved you too?"

And before I knew it they were both laughing and crying and
hugging and kissing and for a moment I thought of nothing except
that I was genuinely happy for them. But then a miss aimed arrow
went whizzing over our heads, and then I remembered that a war
was going on, and that people were dying and that I needed to get
back out there and save the world, and that there was not enough
time to have this kind of moment.

"Blaze, I am really, honestly sorry, but we need to get back out
there and fight, and Ember needs to rest and heal. Come on man,
it is time to go."

He kissed her one last time, and the healers converged upon her
again. He looked at the tree he had pushed over, and looked down
to see that his knuckles were bleeding. He looked at them, mildly
surprised.

"Kind of wish I had not done that." He said, and laughed shakily.

I sighed heavily.

"We don't really have time to joke around here. Come on Blaze, we
have some Earth ass to whoop."

He nodded, and we ran right back in to the onslaught, hoping
against all odds that we were not about to die. Right on the edge
of the fight, Blaze withdrew his sword and shouted "FOR EMBER!"
and ran right in to the battle, ramming straight in to an Earth
warrior head on. Blaze killed him with a single slash of his
sword, and ran farther in to the fight, where I lost track of him
with in a second. Then some one charged me and I really lost
track of things. I sliced his shoulder and ran, hearing him
shouting behind me, calling me a coward and other rude names I
could not hear. I did not care, and just ran as fast as I could
to catch up to Blaze, Starfire, and Tamwyn. I only lifted my
sword to defend my self, and did not kill if I could avoid it.
Some times I could not, though, but for some strange reason I did
not even think any thing of it. It was like I was impervious to
my surroundings, like I was there but not really a part of it,
which is funny because some how, but just existing, I play an
important, almost vital role in all of it. I just wanted to reach
Star and Blaze and Tamwyn, though mostly Blaze, to see if he was
fine and not completely round the bend. But the fighting got
rougher, and more wild, and before I knew it I was fighting three
on one, three huge burly men all with short, iron swords. But
their aim was weak, as was their armor, and I quickly killed them
all. Why is it suddenly so easy to take the lives of people I
never knew? Why is killing so easy now? It should not be like
this. It should not be, but it is. I hate this so much. But it is
to far in to try and turn around now - we have to see this
through.

Thank god, I finally found them. I ran forward, knocking a sword
out of some Earth warrior's hand as I went. Starfire did not stop
fighting with the man before her, but when I killed him for her,
she turned in surprise and breathed a sigh of relief upon
recognizing my face.

"Oh thank goodness, I thought you and Blaze were dead!" she
hollered over the uproar. "And then Blaze came back and did not
tell me what had happened to you, I thought it was certain that
you had been killed!" she slapped Blaze on the shoulder for not
telling her where I was and what we had done.

"Ember was badly hurt." I explained. "We took her to the healers,
and yes, nearly died in the attempt." I stabbed a man who had
been sneaking up behind me, and then turned back to Starfire and
continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. "She is
fine now, and Blaze and Ember have professed their undying love
for each other, blah, blah, blah, and now Ember is trying to
sleep and Blaze has turned in to a crazy killing machine. So yea,
that is the gist of what happened."

Starfire whipped out her bow and arrows and shot three in quick
procession, one right after the other, into the chest of a woman
advancing on us. "How was she hurt?"

"Some big Earth guy stuck a sword in her shoulder."

Starfire cringed. I noticed that even though she had small cuts
and scrapes on her arms and face, she looked other wise unharmed.
We began fighting the oncoming warriors side by side, but we kept
talking to each other.

"How is it." I shouted. "That you look practically perfect?"

She laughed loudly. "Flame, is that not obvious? It is because I
am perfect. A perfect fighter, at least. Have you not
caught on to that yet?"

I laughed too, while simultaneously shooting a tall man in the
shoulder with a silver arrow. Some how, she was able to
distract me from what was happening for the moment. But then we
were separated, and I had to focus on the task at hand.

We were fighting. It was just like all the other battles,
through all the other years, and all the other petty, stupid
wars. I have fought in so many that they all just blend together
in to one big blood bath. I can not distinguish one war from
another any more; I have been alive for too long to tell the
difference. There I was, with Flame on one side of me and Tamwyn
on the other, killing one innocent after another, with no mercy
and no thought, purely barbaric, like the humans we repent. We
are no better, really. We are no better than those silly
humans.

Every thing was going fine. Flame had disappeared, but I knew
he was near bye. We were winning, and I knew that soon the Earth
tribe would have to surrender and we would make our point. If
they did not agree, we would have to leave them in peace, and
feel like failures for not having saved the earth from an unfair
fate.

Suddenly, the world slowed down. I watched the archer, so
young and so foolish, shoot the iron arrow, with its lethal tip,
watched the arrow fly.

And I watched it pierce Tamwyn's flesh.

I watched him fall, as the universe crumbled in to a million
pieces.

I screamed. I screamed and screamed until every fighter laid
down their weapons, every warrior ceased their killing, and every
child pretending to be a soldier suddenly grew young again. I
screamed until they were all silent, I screamed until I knew they
were all listening.

"Do you see now?" I shrieked, at an entire battle field
silent as a grave. "Do you see how foolish this is; childish this
is, petty and useless? Do you see how this war has been built
upon silly grudges that have built up for thousands of years?
Look around! Look at how many men and women you have killed! Look
how many of your comrades have been murdered for a useless cause!
Do you understand how hate has driven us all to murder? This is
hopeless! This is pointless! You are not defenders of our planet,
nor the protectors or the creators! You are the villains, the
adversaries of peace.

"I refuse to take part any longer in killing those who are
innocent for a war that is lacking a true cause."

I looked down at Tamwyn, his lips still warm, just barely,
and I felt the earth moving beneath me. My breath came in sharp
gasps and I knew what had to happen next. Not only to save the
world from a fate that was not meant to be, but because the only
person I cared about, the only person I loved, was now gone,
forever, and there was no way to retrieve him from the cold hands
of death.

And they watched, as Starfire the Invincible took the arrow
that had claimed her lover's life, and plunged it into her
chest.

And they watched, as Starfire, the fiercest warrior in
history, collapsed next to her husband, blood pouring from the
fatal wound, and grasped her husband's hand.

And they watched as Starfire, the Fire soldier who struck
down her enemies quickly and mercilessly, lay down gently, and
took shuddering, long breaths, gripping her spouse's finger tips,
refusing to ever let him go.

And they watched as Starfire, the stuff of legends, the one
gossiped about in fear and awe, the one they all aspired to be
and wished to defeat, the one who's name will live on for all
of eternity, the one they all believed unbeatable,
invulnerable, and immortal, smiled, and closed her eyes
forever.

Silence. Absolute, utter silence, the kind that eats away at your
very soul. The world was upside down, full of tricks and traps,
like a giant maze, and suddenly I had lost the map and nothing
made sense. I was waiting, numb with shock, for Starfire and
Tamwyn to stand and begin to fight again, to tear the enemy down
and win the fight once and for all. Nothing happened. Everyone
was still as stone, like me, processing what had just happened,
trying to understand Starfire's words. I walked over shakily to
her. She looked so peaceful, so serene, that I knew she could not
possibly be alive. Their hands were intertwined. The arrow was
sticking out of her chest, the feathers bent and broken. I pulled
it out and wiped it off on the ground. The tip was lethal. I put
it in my quiver, standing out clearly from the others. Something
slid into place in my mind.

"Starfire" I said, my voice shaking. My face grew hot and wet,
and I knew that I had not been part of Fire long enough to lose
the ability to cry. "Star, I understand now. Sisyphus and the
stone. There is a purpose, you know." I was sobbing now,
but my voice was audible, as everyone was still quiet. "I promise
to never stop trying, Star! I will push that god damn boulder up
to the top, and will fight until it stays there, because there is
a purpose! Star, I promise! Star" my voice broke. I cried and
cried, and no one said anything, for minutes, until another cry
joined mine, and then another and another and another, until a
whole battle field came to terms with what they had done, and
cried for their loved ones, for forgiveness, for some thing and
any thing. We all sobbed unashamedly, until the sun rose,
granting us a new day.